>> welcome to the news hour. these are the top stories. syria confirms it will attend planned talks in geneva in a letter which could have a serious impact on those negotiations. >> lebanon's's dangerous divide, three killed in a car bomb as a trial begins over the murder of its former prime minister. >> with all the news from

europe. the vatican admits that there can be "no accuse for exiled abuse" as its guilt by the u.n. or its record on sex abuse. >> the cult offering hope for people born with an incurable form of blindness. >> aljazeera obtained a leaked document which could have a serious impact on the upcoming geneva peace talks on syria, a letter from the foreign minister to the secretary general of the united nations accepting in a invitation to accept those talks. that it should be noted that we do not agree with certain points mentioned in the letter of invitation, simply for the reason that they are in conflict with the legal and political condition of syria. he goes on:

>> i will speak to our correspondent rosalyn jordan in washington, d.c. in a molt, but first let's go to our diplomatic journalist at the hague. how important is this letter no. >> i think the letter is very important, because it's a reply to the official invitations to all of those supposed to attend the syria peace talks, supposed to start in switzerland next wednesday. this is the formal reply from the syrian government coming from no lesser figure than the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, a reply saying yes, we are coming, this is a

delegation, and there's a big but, but we have some problems with what you are proposing. the syrians again saying they want more of a focus on counter terrorism, also saying that some was what was in the letter they can't that accept. now i haven't even the invitation. i've seen other invitations sent out to other parties. in those, he pretty much made it clear what was the purpose of these syria talks, everything we already knew, that this was to build on what was known as geneva one, which was an agreement that came up in 2012, the summer of 2012 that everyone signed up to. let me remind you what that said, that said there should be a transitional body with full executive power that should run syria. there should be negotiations between the syrian regime and the syrian opposition by mutual consent, they should come up with this transitional body. it seems that the syrian government have problems with that, the whole basis for these

negotiations due to start just in days. >> the opposition still not decided or haven't announced their decision as to whether they're attending those talking about. does it look like they're going to go ahead no. >> well, the opposition will decide, we believe on friday. possibly that will go on until saturday. it's possible there will be some in the opposition who say well, this shows that the syrian government is not going to negotiate on the basis of geneva one, is not going to negotiate fairly and discuss this idea of a transitional body. that there will be others, though, with a different view and i know this is shared by some western dip low he mats i've heard from. they'll say to the opposition, you should go to these talks in switzerland, because it will expose the syrian government. it will show that the syrian government as you get closer to the actual negotiations has real doubts about this whole idea of having a transitional body, and

if the syrian opposition were to go, it would strengthen their position. i'm sure there's deep debate right now among the ranges of the syrian opposition which we know is divided on many issues. >> james, thanks very much. let's speak now to rosalyn jordan, this is in washington, d.c. first. the u.s. has worked hard to get those geneva two talks going. have they reacted yesterday to this letter from the syrian government? >> there hasn't been any official reaction yet to syria's decision to attend geneva two, but the contents of those letters if you look back at previous administration statements, the u.s. would not look favorably on those comments when it comes to the question of aid, which is implied in the last sentence in his note, the u.s. has always said that it is going to provide support of all times, lethal and non-lethal as

well as humanitarian aid to those in the u.n. opposition the u.s. feels is trustworthy. the terms of geneva one, some of the issues that the syrian government takes issue with, the administration of president barack obama has not backed away from its belief that any future syrian government cannot have bashar al assad, the current president or any of his top allies in that government. already, it's likely that you could anticipate some objections from sum officials, but of course, as of this hour, there has not been official comment we are efforting it. >> thanks, very much. rosalyn jordan there i have washington, d.c. for us and james bays at the hague. thank you both. >> the suspects accused of

killing foamer lebanese prime minister's trial have opened, they are being tried in absentia. >> it was one of the most dramatic political assassinations in the middle east. >> the attackers killed innocent bystanders. >> the death of the former prime minister in 2005 tore lebanese society apart. the billionaire businessman was a sunni leader, the five men charged belong to hezbollah. there are fears that the trial will again heighten tensions. it's an important step. >> today for the first time, this action of terror that happened in lebanon hopefully we'll see the time of impunity ending and the time of justice coming. >> prosecutors say they have

enough evidence to begin the trial even though the men have never been arrested and won't be in court. they'll use eyewitness accounts, as well as data from mobile phone networks that i guess said to track the bombers' movements. hezbollah said the trial is part of an international conspiracy and they won't cooperate. the group denies all charges, but this is the first time one of lebanon's longest political crimes is being prosecuted and for some, that's progress. >> we have a lot of people here in lob anyone that think this is political tribunal, but for us, we think it's a very serious tribunal. that it was a very serious inquiry. >> a nation sharply divided between support for hezbollah and march 14 movement set up following the death, the verdict of the court then is someone likely to heal divisions in lebanon, no matter the outcome. aljazeera. >> >> while the trial opened

against a backdrop of violence a suicide attack killed at least three people. a bomber detonated his explosionives near a local government building near the border with syria. the town is a strong hold of the armed group hezbollah. we are joined live. what kind of reaction has there been in lebanon to the start of the trial? >> there's mixed reaction to the trial in the hague. there are those who say that this is an important day, finally justice will be served. those people are mainly supporters of march 14 camp led by the son of the late prime minister. people here, the hezbollah strong hold believe that this is part of an international conspiracy against the group. in fact, this is what hezbollah has been saying, one of its arguments has been the fact that the court has ruled out the

possibility of israel's involvement in the assassination. this is really potentially a very explosive issue in lebanon, why the sunni leader and those accused of killing him belong to a shia party. already sectarian tensions high, resulting from political tensions, and those political tensions are the result of divisions over the war in neighboring syria. hezbollah supports the syrian government and march 14 opposition. this is a country deeply divided, the bomb on thursday yet another example of how unstable the security situation is. >> there has been no claim of responsibility yet for that bombing, but the location and the timing are certainly suspicious. >> no, there has been no claim of responsibility, but many lebanese officials have said that it is linked to the war in

syria. we have spoken to people here and they point the finger at al-qaeda livinged groups as well as armed groups linked to the syrian opposition. over recent days, really, this has been warnings and threats issued by those groups, one in particular, the lebanon branch of al-qaeda. what they said is that they're going to continue "their agenda to fight iran and hezbollah." it is a brigade that claimed responsibility for the bombing of the iranian embassy in beirut last november, so no claim of responsibility, but clearly here, people feel this is livinged to the syria war. who was the target? it was civilians and this is hezbollah's strongest base. it's their strong hold, but supporters live here. people told us if they think by continuing to attack us we're going to change our political to answer, we're not, they believe if their fighters didn't go to syria, the syrian opposition would have come to lebanon and fought them here.

>> thank you. live for us from lebanon. >> coming up on the program, the largest mass migration, it's that time of the year when chinese transport net woke are stretched to breaking point. >> are you the son of god? >> i am. >> from the holy book to hollywood, biblical stories make a 1 cinematic come back. >> in melbourne, most play was suspended on thursday because of the extreme heat. not before time, say some players. >> rwandan soldiers arrived in central african republic to boost the peace keeping force there at the risk of genocide. close to 100 troops were flown

into the capitol by the u.s. military. a total of 800 soldiers will be deployed over the coming days. more than 1,000 people have been killed in attacks by rival christian and muslim militia groups and a million people have fled their homes. >> we are live from the capitol. rwandan troops starting to arrive there. is this significant? >> well, it is significant in part because there aren't many peace keepers here on the ground. there's only some 5,000 africans and 1.5000 french troops, so any addition to that, given the scale of the problem here and the size of the country is extremely welcome. as you said, there will be some 800 rwandans here totally. it's not enormous in quantity, but the generals who lead the african peace keeping force are grateful for what they can get,

but it's also, i think significant for another reason. rwanda certainly by african standards has a well-equipped and well-trained army. that ought to be a boost to the troops on the ground, however, it is a country that has had difficult relations let's just say with some of the other countries that are here participating to the peace keeping force. not least, their democratic republic of congo and of course, there have been difficult relations with france that go back some 20 years to the time of the rwandan genocide in april of 1994. that seeing how these relations play on you on the ground amongst soldiers and officers who are all on the same side will be interesting to see in the coming weeks and months. >> we understand that things are calmer there, but that the exodus from muslim communities continues. are things really more stable? >> well, they are more stable in

the accepts that the streets are certainly busier during the day, but we were hearing reports of a lot of shooting in different parts of the area last night. today, we saw the continued exodus of two communities. i saw over 100 sudanese flown out on an emergency evacuation flight. people say they don't feel safe in the city as muslims, one man was going back to darfur and had no desire to return here ever again. he said they don't like us and we don't like them. we also saw a large convoy of vehicles as hing off towards chad, something like 50 trucks, maybe 1,000 people in all, and they were escorted by chadden soldiers. french soldiers were checking those vehicles, the truckion and vehicles, looking for weapons,

and this presumably would be for those involved with the militia. >> thank you. live for us from the central african republic capitol. >> the vatican acknowledged there can be no accuse for child abuse at an intense public grilling over the handling of the child sexual abuse scandal. >> the roman catholic church has come in for blistering criticism quizzing its representatives for the first time. the vatican enable the the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priest to say save its reputation and its envoys now admitted that the holy see was slow to face the

crisis but now it is committed to taking action. >> in the end, there is no excuse for any form of violence or exploitation of children. such crimes can never be justified whether committed in the home, schools, community and sports programs, in religious organizations and structures. this is the long-standing policy of the holy see. >> we are standing by in geneva where that hearing is taking place. this was a big opportunity for the vatican to change its approach to this problem of sexual abuse by the clergy. a lot has been hoped for. has the vatican delivered? >> i'm not sure that it has. this is as you say correctly long overdo and keenly anticipated appearance by a delegation from the vatican before this u.n. committee on that the rights of a child.

there should have been several times before, before they signed this convention but they have stoodously avoided coming before this committee. they south to make reassurances about how they are trying to get their house in order, after that, which you just heard, they were asaled by a for rent of questions from members of the committee. the common denominator being everyone wants more information, more detailed revelations. they want to hear more disclosure about what the vatican is doing, about specific guidelines it is issuing to diocese all across the world. finally here, i guess, a greater sense that the vatican is taking responsibility. they've been evoiding that whole issue, and at the back of the room during this very detailed, long exhaustive session, there were victims. they tend to prefer to call

themselves survivors of this kind of abuse and most of them, i have to say were disappointed with what they heard. i am now joint by one such, sue cox from survivors voice, europe. thanks for joining us, sue. we were saying this was a chance for the vatican to attorney page, come clean, deliver a new approach. did he there delivery on that? >> absolutely not. they were evoicive and choose to answer the questions that they pref to answer. they avoid the ones that really go very near to the heart of this particular problem, and they just spend a lot of time evading, so, no, they haven't answered anything at all. >> from your point of view it's a bit more of the same. what do you and others like you, the survivors community actually want from the vatican? >> we don't want anything from them, because actually 98% of survivors don't have anything to do with they will, but they need

to be accountable. they need to stand and be counted, they need to be open to public scrutiny, which they are not. they to have stop their secrecy, more than anything, they have to stop their can you have ups. it's a narcissisticcal organization. they cannot hide behind cannon allow but adheres to the law of the nations. >> pope francis is the new head of this church, this papacy and receiving quite a lot of good press for his desire to introduce openness and transparency. why don't you think he's going to deliver? >> well, hope francis isn't new. he's not been parachuted into mars. he's been part of this hierarchy. he's a politician. we had historic restoration of benedict and then they brought in this smiling p.r. man who has

talked a good talk. we're not optimistic. it's a p.r. campaign. it's offensive, actually. we see him pictures giving rise to his friends in the pope mobile and ringing up to say happy new year to nuns when he disregards brain damaged people, millions all over the world that have simply asked for justice. he prefers to deal with trivia. that's offensive the people like us. >> i understand, thank you for joining us. what happens next is that the deliberations put together, the answers that they hope the vatican will provide will be put you into a report, essentially a report card on the vatican's performance in terms of the convention on the rights of the child, which they have signed. in early february, the u.n. will issue its results. on the base of what we're hearing so far today, i don't

think it's going to make very comfortable reading for the vatican. >> live in geneva, simon, thank you. >> child abuse investigators in the u.k., u.s. and australia have dismantled an international pedophile ring. the group streamed live webcam footage of impoverished children being abused to paying viewers around the world. relatives of the children are among the 29 people arrested. the investigation was started by a routine police investigation into a sex offender here in britain. >> this is timothy ford, a registered sex offender in britain. police made a routine visit to his home and found indecent videos showing child abuse recorded from live web cams in the philippines. that led to operation endeavor, a global police investigation that's led to 46 word wide arrests. >> the acts were watched by pedestrian files in 13 countries, united states, canada, britain, netherlands,

france, germany, switzerland, denmark, sweden, norway, taiwan, hong kong and australia. this ring has now been broken up and 15 children aged six and 15 have been rescued by philippine authorities. >> in britain, timothy ford was jailed for eight and a half years. another feed file is serving seven years. in an on line chat they talked about how it worked: >> in manila, the government is tressing it is acting against parents and other individuals who subject children to abuse for money. >> even before the publication of this report, the government has committed itself to doing everything that needs to be done through interagency effort, through legislation, and through other administrative measures to

stop this trafficking. >> the campaign group say this type of abuse could happen virtually anywhere. all that's needed is demand from wealthy countries and the presence of vulnerable children. >> that includes separation from family or not really losing parents, parents who have migrated or parents who just aren't around living with other relatives or being on their own. it also includes unfortunately children who have been abused before are very vulnerable to this tape of abuse and just the situation in the community, where you have high unemployment, high poverty, social inequality. >> three other investigations are going on, suggesting what's emerged could be a small part of a huge problem. >> i'll have plenty more news from europe later this hour, including politicians getting physical in parliament after supporters rapidly through the 2014 budget and the sweeping anti protest law.

>> standing trial on bribery charges in april. >> there's been an explosion outside of pakistan killing five. this happened in a mosque. hundreds of people were there when it happened. more than 40 have been taken to hospital. >> police in china detained a leading scholar from the muslim minority group, accused of breaking the the law but no further details were given. the academic who is an economist at a university in caging has campaigned for the rights of minorities and spoken out publicly against chinese government policies. >> the chinese capitol is once again blanketed with thick smog. the pollution index reached 671

in caging wednesday morning, the highest recorded since last january. anything above 300 micro grams per cubic meter is considered hazardous. >> hundreds of millions of people in china are using planes, trains and automobiles to get home for the holiday. it's the world's biggest mass migration. craig leeson reports. >> imagine your worst traveled experience, an overcrowded airport, long cues, argument over seat allocation. that is a picnic compared to this. today in china is the start of spring transport. that that means hundreds of millions of chinese migrant workers, school children and families begin their annual migration to their villages for chinese new year. that places enormous stress on the transportation system here.

that 280 million people will travel by train. 43 million by boat, 35 million by air, and 3.2 billion trips will be made by road. it is the largest migration of people anywhere on the planet. how does china's rail system cope? well, the simple answer, it doesn't. despite billions being spent on the network in the past few years, 120,000 kill meters of track laid, it isn't enough. what is the experience like for chinese? >> if i beaut train ticket now, the ticket would be sold out, so i have to buy it more than 10 days earlier. we got up very early to come here from the construction site, 3:00 in the morning. we are very lucky we got the tickets, just two tickets left. >> i don't know how to use internet. i am just a migrant worker. young people know how to buy the

tickets on line. >> making this year's travel more difficult for chinese is the rising cost of train tickets. the new high speed train, which can take you from beijing to the south, a trip normally taking 22 hours now taking eight hours can cost 125 u.s. dollars. that's half the monthly wage of a migrant worker. for 25 u.s. dollars, you can get a trip on a local train, but that can take you 48 hours to reach your zippation and that's standing room only, toe-to-toe with hundreds of others of chinese as you make your way back to your village across count are i. it's a grueling journey, but one many are willing to make to spend a few weeks with family and friends on chinese luna new year. >> we've get all the sports still to come. we'll visit the small town in colorado that produces more

winter olympians than any other town in north america.

>> journalist glenn greenwald joins "the stream" >> the us government uses

terrorism as it's excuse to do almost everything... they're collecting emails and they're collecting emails and >> welcome back. a reminder of the top stories here on aljazeera. aljazeera obtained a document from the syrian government which could impact the upcoming peace talking about on syria, a letter from the syrian foreign minister to the secretary general of the united nations confirms damascus will send a delegation to the talks, but questions the basis of the negotiations. >> a suicide attack in the northern lebanese town has killed three and wounded dozens of others. the explosives were detonated near a government building in the hezbollah strong hold. >> while that attack happened as the trial began of four men accused of murdering lebanon's former prime minister in 2005. the hezbollah members of being tried in absentia at the hague. >> joining us now live from beirut is a professor of

political science and history at the american university of beirut. welcome to the program, sir. if we could first get your thoughts on this trial taking place almost nine years after the prime minister was killed. >> the court starts serious work and try to get to the bottom of the assassination of the prime minister and others killed with him or sass anywayed after that. however, i think at this point in time, it is bog to be a long process. it is increasing tension in lebanon.

the government we have how, it's resigned, and the need for a new president in a couple of months, so all in all, i think while we are glad to have the court started, i think probably more than half of the lebanese think it is a political accusation of hezbollah and that this is an international decision to go after hezbollah. >> very mixed reaction there in lebanon. some do see it as an attempt for some kind of accountability. director of the carney endowment for international peace say this is an attempt as changing the culture of impunity not only in lebanon, but the region. >> that's true, but we know states have committed murder, like israel and lebanon and other places and have not been tried. we are for justice, but it has

to be just for all. while i am for trying any political assassination or any assassination, given the tense situation, it is going to be very political. my fear that it is going to preclude or prevent or push away the possibility of agreement between the lebanese in the common period because we do need it very, very much at this time. >> thank you so much with sure. >> italy revealed the name of the port that it has volunteered as the site for the transfer of syria's chemical weapons. the first batch of stockpiles which is onboard a dan issue ship will be taken to a southern port.

we are joined now live from rome. why are they using this port and what's actually going to happen? >> well, the it willian government is saying it's using the port in the region of calabia. if you look at italy as a boot, it's the toe region. one, the depth of its harbor and distance from residential center. perhaps it is reason why they chose that port is because it specializes in transshipment. once the danish ship carrying the cargo of chemical weapons stockpile arrives, it will have to load the cargo on to an american ship, which then will take the cargo to international waters and that's where they

will destroy it through a process of hydrolysis. the trucking device has been be disconnected for security reasons, so we don't know yet and the foreign ministry and it willian government is not telling us when it will arrive. what we know is that the u.s. ship that is supposed to take the cargo is till in virginia. this will take sometime. when it arrives, it may just sit there for a number of days and that's not going to please the local population. >> there's been a lot of opposition leading up to this decision. thank you very much.

>> egypt's state media said more than 90% of voters have approved the new constitution. the government says around 55% of the population turned up to cast ballots over two days. this is the first poll since mohamed morsi was ousted as president last july. >> one student has been killed at cairo university, fighting broke out between those for and against the muslim brotherhood. the group has been declared a terrorist of organization. >> aljazeera continues to call for the immediate release of five of its journalists still detained in egypt. producers and correspondent have been held without charge for 19 days. they are accused of spreading lies harmful to state security and of joining a terrorist group, allegations which aljazeera says are fabricated.

they are held outside cairo. >> the other two journalists are from our sister channel, a reporter and cameraman. they have been detained for five months. >> there's been a double attack on an anti-government protestors in ukraine. >> demonstrators will now find protesting riskeer. mass rallies were banned in central key every and the the president's supporters rammed through a law with heavy fines for anyone who joins unauthorized protests. that led to bloody scenes in the parliament, which pushed through the 2014 budget. the finances were welcomed by pro government campaigners outside parliament, but antti government protestors are still

out in the square and the opposition wants them to stay there. >> they completely usurped power. the dictatorship completely took over the legislative, executive and judicial powers. now it's the street that has to speak. we are appealing to at international community, the regime and party of the regions have destroyed the ukrainian legislative power. this is overthrowing the constitutional structure in a power grab. >> a politician happen shod dead in kosovo, gunned down outside his apartment just after midnight. he refused to swear allegiance to authorities. his party is part of the coalition government.

>> politicians in the spanish region of cat loania voted by a margin of 2-1 to ask for a referendum. they seek greater autonomy and scotland is preparing for its own referendum in september. >> to news of a major break through in the u.k. scientists have restored sights to people born with a previously incurable form of blindness. they've used gene therapy to help people who have the condition, one in 50,000, mostly men. >> many of us take our eyesight for granted. if you have this disease, your vision is restricted and this

eventually can lead to blindness. toby first experienced sight problems when he was a boy. >> it becomes increasingly difficult because the peripheral vision shrings and i'm left with a very small part of the core, the central vision, which enables me to read. >> after taking part in a trial, his vision in the eye operated on improved. it is linked to a mutation in a gene and causes the back of the eye to degenerate. in this study, scientists injected the retina with a modified virus which is made safe. it delivers a correct version of the defective gene which hosts the further loss of vision in surviving cells and can improve it, too. >> six months after the treat, the patient's vision in dim light improved and a third of them could also see further down on the lines chart.

>> with gene they are approximate pi, we're genetically modifying people, in a positive way, putting back the gene that they're missing. we're not trying to enhance them or make them better than normal. we are correcting a line gene defect. >> the sample study was small, but it has helped participants think more positively about the future. >> until then, there was no real hope, and what the fantastic thing about this trial is that it has given me and people like me real and tangible hope that the awful inevitability as the creep of blindness that is now not going to happen that. >> scientists say it should offer new hope for sufferers and it may eventually help in the treatment of other eye conditions.

aljazeera, oxford. >> formula one boss is to go on trial in germany in late april. the 83-year-old will step down as director but keep running the motor racing business while on trial. he is chief executive of formula one's management company, facing charges of bribery an ensitement to breach of trust over payment to a german bank seven queers ago. >> tell us some more about the charges. >> >> the charges have to do with the sale of a 47% stake in the formula one franchise to a private equity group known at c.v.c. that took place seven, eight years ago. the sale came to 800 if he didn't million dollars, a giant chunk of money. the german banker at the center of the sale was a risk assessment officer out of a bavarian bank which held that

47% take. the prosecutor in the munich court accuses egglestone of paying him to make sure the chunk was sold to c.v.c. in order that he could remain its boss, that was the deal, as it were. however, he has been saying at a the money that he paid to this man, gearheardt gaboski was money to save off possible revelations about his tax situation, in other words, this was a kind of blackmail payment, so it's really going to come down to one man against the other. the banker is serving jail time for accepting money as the german government sees it and not paying taxes on it. >> of course, if one made a statement, what do they have to say? >> summarizing earlier, he is to

give up his job as director but remain in the day to day operations of formula one to give him time to make his defense before the german justice, however, the major signs authority and so on will be given over to another board member. this isn't the only legal concern that he faces. there's also a civil suit before a london court involving the same sale, where a german company, which did not become the lucky owner of the 47% stake, which lost in that bidding process wants well over $140 million, because it feels it did not get fairly examined. a lot of lia legal troubles ahed for the ahead of formula one. >> that's the news from europe. now it's back to doha. >> thanks very much. all the sports coming up, including the top stars beating the heat at the australian open.

>> welcome back. a union leader in brazil is demanding a senate investigation into prison violence that comes after three prisoners were decapitated during a riot. it has been linked to corruption among jailors. 62 inmates died in prison violence last year. >> from a third party had no

capability of managing prisons. usually a jailor receives training, but they had a week or just a lecture. some can't use handcuffs or guns nor understand how to communique with prisoners. >> a value cone know continues to spew. people living around it have been forced to take ref final at shelters. it has become active in the past few months after being quiet for four centuries. >> time for all the sport. >> temperatures are forecast to top 40 degrees celsius at the australian open. play was suspended thursday as the extreme heatwave continued. andrew thomas reports from melbourne. >> after three hours of play with temperatures in excess of 41 degrees came the announcement many felt was long overdue, play

suspended. the australian's open exsupreme heat policy meant play was stopped on outer courts and paused while the roof was closed on show courts. a fan and player collapsed. many competitors needed on court cooling. spectator numbers are that well down on previous years. many who did come on thursday left early. >> you're leaving? how was it in there? >> damn hot. it's damn hot today. it's been like that most of the day. >> tournament organizers say the decision to suspend play was because a crucial threshold had been reached. exactly what that was wasn't revealed. >> a decision to suspend play isn't a simple matter of looking at the monitor. the organizers use the wet bulb glow temperature composite based only this equation. it takes into account direct sun

light, humidity, as well as ambient temperature. >> it takes into account the bat of an athlete to lose heat in response to exertion or how much heat they're likely to gain from extremely hot environment. >> some players, even top seeds who won early thursday were not so understanding. >> i think the question i have is, is no one really knows what the limit is, not the players, the trainers themselves, when you ask them when will the roof be closed, no one actually knows what that number is. >> many spectators gave up. on and, a player visited the penguin center. on thursday, in the air conditioning, it was one of the busiest places in town. >> the plan was to be tennis, but it's too hot.

>> back at the tennis, the night session promised some relief, but friday will be every bit as hot. andrew thomas, aljazeera, melbourne. >> the world number one faced few problems against australian teenager and advanced 6-2, 6-4, 62. the next opponent will be the man he recently beat in the final in the catur open. >> roger federer had little troubles in his match. it was the fits time in a decade that the 17 time grand slam champion had played a match outside the main arena. >> fourth seed murray joined the big names in the third round, he overcame a third set challenge. the britain came back and won 23 consecutive points to seal the match 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.

>> in the women's draw, the defending champion served up the match. >> many of the world's best golfers are playing their first tournament in 2014 at the abu dhabi championship. the pan-year-old is the highest ranked of the trio at 141 in the world. he's joined at five under by the french player and england's matthew baldwin. mcelroy is three behind in a tie for 19. >> a doping hearing for. jamaicn sprinter will be held next month. he's trying to explain why he tested positive to a banned

stimulant at national trials in june last year. he claims he forget to check if the supplement he took was on bad list due to the excitement of the trials. he was one of five. jamaican athletes who failed tests. >> china produce as lot of winter olympic champions, so does the united states. one small town in colorado is known at ski town u.s.a. despite a. lation of 12,000, it sent more athletes to the winter games than any other town in north america. aljazeera's paul beban reports. >> forget football, this is how

they do friday night lites in steam boat springs. the kids lineup and launch themselves into the darkness. >> go! >> saturday morning, time for speed camp. saturday afternoon, a cross country race. >> the hill may be humble to big sister steam boat across the valley, but this is mount olympus. they say it is built out of dirt andrews. >> they've been cranking out olympians for 100 years. johnny spilane grew up a few miles from the club and became the first north america medalist in the nordic combined. >> it produces so many athletes because all the kids are having fun. you can't be successful in nip sport without enjoying what you do. >> this is the history of see

town, u.s.a. >> yes, and here is the man who started it all. >> he founded the club in 1914. its culture has a formula generation after generation. brothers club kids all grown up are on their way to sochi. mom penny says the club means more than medals. >> it's kind of a community gathering spot for them to come here, train and learn sportsmanship, morals, ethics, their goals in life. >> make no at a, these boys and girls have visions of olympic glory. >> my heroes are the women ski jumpers, because it's the first year that they're getting to jump in the olympics. >> in this room, each flag represents one olympic appearance by a sports club athlete, proof that sometimes here more than anyplace else, olympic dreams really do take flight.

>> one of major league baseball's most famous ballparks yankee stadium is preparing to host a nfl game. it is being covered in case and islanders on the 29th for two of six regular season games being held outdoors this season. >> while the nominations for hollywood's oscar awards have been announced. american hustle is one of two films with 10 nominations, including best picture. space thriller "gravity" has 10 nominations, including sandra bullock who is in the race for best act stress. also included is "12 years a slave." awards will be handed out march 2. that's it for now. goodbye.